Editors’ Rating:

Our Verdict:
This flexibly backlit mechanical keyboard, available in a choice of switch types, works well for late-night gaming, while looking businesslike for bashing out e-mails and reports during the day. Look for it on sale. Read More…

Table of Contents

Introduction

It wasn’t that long ago that mechanical keyboards were rare birds indeed, mostly consigned to the vault of 1980s tech memory. The genre was kept alive by only a few keyboard makers servicing the hard-core, such as Das Keyboard and Unicomp.

Has that ever changed in a sudden cacophony of keyboard clatter.

In the last year or so, we’ve seen a scramble by accessory makers into the mechanical-keyboard market. Just like many of them jumped into mobile-device accessories and cases when the desktop-PC market began to stagnate, they’re trying their hands at mechanical keyboards in the search for another tech-accessory niche not yet thoroughly plundered.

Where once mechanical boards were hard to find, we’ve seen a host of new makers enter the market: Cooler Master, Logitech, Corsair, Tesoro, and Thermaltake, to name just some. That’s not to ignore the budget-gear arm of Newegg.com, Rosewill, whose newest mechanical is the subject of this review.

Rosewill, one of the earlier entrants, has been in mechanical boards for a few years now, and the company’s third-gen revision of its flagship mechanical keyboard is by far its most eye-catching yet. The $139.99-MSRP Helios RK-9200, like its Rosewill predecessors the RK-9000 Mechanical Keyboard and RK-9100 Illuminated Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, is at heart a basic keyboard: no shortcut-key frills for gamers, no elaborate macro-recording or key-programming software included.

Some buyers may want a blizzard of features like those for their money, and when you’re paying $100 or more for a keyboard, that’s a reasonable demand. But for those seeking a good mechanical board that bridges the worlds of work and play, this one won’t embarrass you on either field. The Helios RK-9200 hadn’t hit the market at the time we wrote this review—it's expected to roll out in Q4—but given the site’s price trends, we’d expect specials on Newegg to offer it for about $20 to $30 less than its list price at varying times.

The prime difference between the Helios RK-9200 and other mechanicals we've seen is its dual-color lighting. Rather than a keyset with single-color illumination, the Helios flaunts backlighting that you can turn red or green, with the WASD and four directional-arrow keys lit up in a contrasting color, or lit up alone.

What’s also unusual about the Helios RK-9200: You can get it in a choice of one of four Cherry key-switch types. Key switches are the actual discrete mechanisms under each key in a mechanical keyboard, and Cherry's MX switches have gradually become the gold standard; they are the most common and popular kind you'll find in today's mechanical boards. Most mechanical keyboards come in one switch type, take it or leave it: usually Cherry MX Blue for heavy typing, or MX Black or MX Red if the keyboard leans toward gaming. Here, if you have a preference, you can get an RK-9200 in your favorite type: MX Blue, Red, Black, or Brown. Mechanical key switches are a world of their own, and a religious-war debate can erupt among initiates around which kind is best for different situations. More on the types, and their strengths and weaknesses, on the next page.